Potential spoilers for the next episode of The Walking Dead. You’ve been warned.
Even though Daryl is one of the most popular characters in The Walking Dead, he hasn’t really been doing much in Season 6 beyond riding his motorcycle very slowly in front of a giant herd of walkers. But he gets into a heap of trouble in the next episode, thanks to an unrecognizable group of survivors. Could that group possibly be a part of The Saviors, the deadly squad of underlings ruled by Negan? One huge clue seems to suggest this may be the case.
As was first shown in the Season 6 trailer released at Comic-Con, Daryl stumbles upon new folks, and the main guy has no qualms with sticking a gun right in Daryl’s face. And according to The Spoiling Dead Fans, that character’s name is Dwight. (Brain explodes.) Comic fans know that name to Negan’s most recognizable right-hand-man. So does that mean that this pack of wanderers is one of presumably many small squads of Saviors in the area surrounding Alexandria?
Let’s go with the pros first. For one, Jeffrey Dean Morgan was recently cast as Negan, and he’s rumored to be showing up in the Season 6 finale, with a broadened storyline coming in Season 7. In the comics, the Saviors enter the storyline before their leader is introduced, so this makes sense, although I didn’t realistically expect them to come up until after the midseason finale. And these people don’t kill Daryl, even though they could easily do so, and that fits into Negan’s philosophy, which is more concerned with bullying people into giving him stuff under the threat of death, rather than just simply killing everyone. Plus, the guy’s name is DWIGHT, and there’s no way that Scott Gimple and Robert Kirkman are going to introduce two characters by that name in the same season.
As for the cons, the most obvious one is that this Dwight does not share his illustrated namesake’s horrific wounds. Comic Dwight had half of his face burnt off by Negan over some personal issues, and that is definitely not the case with the guy in the trailer. Perhaps we’re seeing Dwight before that awful slice of torture, though. In any case, there’s no way this show can give us this character without referencing his signature look.
As you can see, Dwight is also good with the crossbow, tying him to Daryl in that way. Spoiling Dead Fans also mention that Daryl’s crossbow is also in trouble in this episode, and he might lose the weapon to his captives. Could that be how TV Dwight becomes a crossbow king? That would be a really interesting shake-up from the comics in a way that feels organic.
So, either we’re getting our first taste of The Saviors next week, or Gimple and Kirkman are just fucking with us by calling this guy Dwight. Either way, it still doesn’t tell us what happened to Glenn. What do you guys think?
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